Will Bigger Screens Make You a Better Communicator?

Unfortunately, the human brain doesn’t subscribe to “Moore’s Law.”  Our brains actually haven’t improved their processing capacity that much over the past decades. However, a larger screen is one way of tapping into the innate image processing capabilities of your audience (which are quite good).

Marketers that make heavy use of electronic communications should start thinking now about how they want to exploit larger display technology to their advantage.

Experience the big screen
If you're not convinced of the value of larger displays, just sit yourself down in front of one of big screens used by creative types, such as graphic designers, architects or engineers. I guarantee you’ll get an immediate rush.

But due to high cost, large displays aren’t mainstream. All that is about to change, thanks to cheaper flat panels and better display arrangement and resolution.

By 2010, the United States Display Consortium estimates that LCD TVs will be sold for around $500. 40” displays will drop below $1,000. 

Though nothing quite approaching Moore’s law, there are a couple of principles coming from Japanese researchers that will make screen envy obsolete.

• Kitahara’s Law shows us that every three years screen real estate has grown 44 percent while panel thickness and weight has decreased by a third.

• Odawara’s Law tells us each doubling of flat panel size has reduced costs by 22 to 23 percent.

Size and Productivity
While studies show that big screens help people absorb communications more efficiently and with greater comprehension -- a big electronic display is not a panacea. Paper is still preferred when communicating lots of information (like training manuals). This may be partly true because of the screen’s limitations to reproduce characters and graphics as good as the printed page.

However, there are some interesting observations coming from organizations like Pfeiffer Consulting, that found Apple’s 20” 1600 x 1024 resolution display could boost office productivity by 40 percent.

• Microsoft Research found a 9 percent improvement in small tasks performed on larger screens.

• NEC, in a study they commissioned with the University of Utah, discovered a 10 percent increase in regular office work just by having multiple monitors.

See it all at once
While studies from technology vendors may have their biases, just stop and think about it. How much time do you spend “Alt Tabing” around your applications?

Wouldn’t you rather open windows side by side in many of your tasks? For example, when you’re deriving a powerpoint slide form a word doc? Or cutting and pasting from a spread sheet? Or communicating major points from a larger study into an email message? Or just about anything you do on your computer?   Mark Raskino of Gartner says it best:

"When more information can be placed within our vision at once, we’re simply able to interpret and communicate the patterns and logic more readily."

While we still need analytical software, larger displays will go a long way to improving basic information work, similar to the way Moore’s Law provides more raw processing power for our computers.